Germany to Thailand-TRIP STATS-Day 960

After just a little bit of nagging, zee in-house accountant has finally found some time to get some new trip stats together. Yey for nagging!
If you recall, when we left Germany on 12 September 2012, we estimated that we could do this trip ‘comfortably’ for about €500 a month, or €6,000 a year. Naturally, ‘comfortable’ is an extremely relative term, and although my posts of the last few months may have led you to believe we are leading an opulent overlanding life, do keep in mind that for almost two years before that, we kept tight reigns on our comforts. Mostly, this had to do with our ever-impending BIG expense of crossing China. We dropped €2000 each in the pot in august 2014, just for that privilege. BTW, it was worth every 2-minute noodle pack we were forced to consume 😉

After almost 3 years on the road, we’ve managed a budget of €5933 a year. Go figure! Couldn’t have planned it even if we tried! 😀

We are often asked how on earth we can manage to travel (and well at that) with such a tight budget. Have a look at the pie chart below (because as if my German accountant would be happy just to give me a list?)

The chart makes it plainly obvious that a whole third of expenses, when overlanding with one’s own vehicle, are related to movement. Food and accommodation can almost be entirely discarded. No matter where you are, where you travel or where you live, you gotta eat and you gotta sleep.

Petrol, visas, border crossings and ferry crossings are the only expenses that you can seriously play around with. When we exited China in October last year, our stats were looking quite pathetic indeed. The solution, to even them out, was simple. We slowed down. This is the #1 tactic for drastically reducing costs. need to make the money last? Then best you spread out those expenses.

We’ve barely covered 4,500kms in the last SIX months and the beneficial effects of that, on our budget, have been obvious.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that we are now free to splurge ad infinitum. The end of this year will bring another hefty expense. Puck and Pixie, to continue on their mighty adventure, will need to get a Carnet de Passage, a kind of passport for vehicles. That will cost ’em €1500 each. Bugger.

As you can see…life on the road is not much different to a lovely, comfortable, stable life at home. You take two steps forward…and one step back 😉